Two worms -- Klez and Yaha -- continue to plague users around the world, despite months ofwarnings to install the patches needed to easily fend them off.

Variants of the Klez worm, the Yaha worm and the Avril worm are still causing enoughproblems to make two separate lists of the top worms and viruses for the month of March.Sophos Inc. and Central Command Inc., both antivirus vendors, put the three worms on theirlist of notorious elite. A Sobig variant, along with Nimda and Bugbear, also found spots onthe listings.

''Remarkably, the Internet worms, Klez.E and Yaha.E have remained number one and number two[on our list] for the past five months,'' says Steven Sundermeier, a product manager withCentral Command. ''This is a clear indication that many users continue to ignore theimportance of installing and maintaining up-to-date antivirus software.''

https://o1.qnsr.com/log/p.gif?;n=203;c=204660766;s=9477;x=7936;f=201812281312070;u=j;z=TIMESTAMP;a=20392931;e=i
At Sophos, the highest-ranked new entry to March's virus list is Gibe-D, a variant of theGibe worm which spreads through the KaZaA network. ''It indicates the growing popularity offile sharing,'' says Chris Belthoff, a senior product manager at Sophos. ''Businesses needto rethink whether these applications have a valid place on their networks.''

At Central Command, new viruses on the list included the Ganda worm and the NiceHello worm.Ganda is designed to prey on the world's interest in the events in the Middle East. One bodymessage claims the email contains pictures taken by one of the U.S. spy satellites during amission over Iraq. The NiceHello worm emails itself to addresses found on the MSN Messengercontact list. The email contents are written in Spanish.

Sophos reports that it detected 883 new viruses, worms and Trojan horses in March.

Sophos also reports that a new hoax has taken the highest spot in the company's list of tophoaxes.

''The WTC Survivor hoax, which falsely warns of a Sept. 11 themed virus, has taken over thenumber one slot for the first time in a year,'' says Belthoff. ''People receiving this hoaxshould ignore its advice and not email the warning to everyone they know. Much like realviruses, hoaxes clog mail servers and cause unnecessary confusion.''

Loading Comments...

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which QuinStreet receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. QuinStreet does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.